Interview By Maria Buteux Reade
If you live in the Capital District, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Chef Jaime Ortiz’s restaurants: 677 Prime, Primrose Café, Toro Cantina, Prime Burger & Shakehouse, Sea Smoke. Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have enjoyed meals at one (or more!) of these establishments. A proud denizen of this region for more than 20 years, Jaime proves that success arises from utter dedication to the craft of cooking and learning from the best.
Edible Capital District: Tell us how you ended up pursuing a career as a chef.
Jaime Ortiz: I remember always being in the kitchen when I was a kid, following my mom around, or playing restaurant with my cousins. I would seat them and bring them food. They love to remind me of that. But then, I kind of forgot about cooking during adolescence until I came up from New York City to attend SUNY Albany. I paid my way through school by working as general manager at a Little Caesars and as kitchen manager at a Ruby Tuesday. I realized I was pretty good at managing kitchens, so I decided to go to Schenectady Community College culinary school, with the goal of becoming a chef. I took all my classes on Tuesday and Thursday and worked two full-time jobs on the other five days. I was sous-chef at Albany Pump Station in the morning and at Nicole’s Bistro in the evening. I was obsessed. I would fall asleep with my head on a cookbook and Emeril Lagasse blaring on the TV. I was laser-focused on learning as much as I could in a short amount of time.
What was your path after culinary school?
I landed my first chef job with Angelo Mazzone at Glen Sanders Mansion. He already had the Hall of Springs, and then he opened the Lodge at Saratoga as a high-end exclusive restaurant, which he let me run. I knew my job was to develop and cook dishes that would make the restaurant successful. And I did whatever it took to achieve that goal. I lived, breathed and slept the restaurant. Mazzone Hospitality gained momentum; I became corporate chef; and we built from there. We grew to 1,100 employees across a number of restaurants, banquet facilities and the business dining sector that included Regeneron, Global Foundries and Price Chopper headquarters.
I stayed with Angelo for 17 years. At one point, I worked two days a week in Albany and spent the next four days at several notable restaurants in New York City to broaden my skills. I met some extraordinary chefs and fell in love with French cuisine.
Tell me about your JO Restaurant Group.
In 2017, Angelo decided to sell 677 Prime, which we had opened in 2005. It made sense for me to buy the restaurant since I had been the chef and knew its brand the best. Since then, I’ve opened Toro, Primrose Café, Prime Burger and Sea Smoke.
Give a thumbnail of each restaurant.
677 Prime remains a classic, high-end steakhouse. You’ll always find filet mignon, Caesar salad, lobster tail, soft-shell and stone crab, two kinds of caviar. But we try to keep things creative by offering up to a dozen daily specials depending on what’s fresh and seasonal. And we have a whole Wagyu program with gorgeous marbled beef from Japan, Australia and the United States.
Primrose Café is right next to 677 Prime in Albany. It’s a great place for well-made coffee drinks, breakfast sandwiches, pastries, salads and cold or toasted sandwiches.
Soon after that, I was presented with a space and opportunity on Wolf Road. I wanted to create an energetic, cheffy, dynamic, beautiful place, and that evolved into Toro Cantina. We prepare authentic Mexican cuisine, from creative pork, chicken, beef and vegetarian tacos to traditional entrées, such as shrimp enchiladas with three cheeses or lamb barbacoa. And we have seven signature house salsas. It’s a fun place.
Then the River Street Market food hall opened in Troy in 2019. I decided to try something in this space, as a test, that we could maybe launch elsewhere in the Capital District. I love a high-quality smash burger served on a toasted buttered bun and a variety of toppings. That became Prime Burger & Shakehouse.
Sea Smoke Waterfront Grill opened in early December 2021. Peter Luizzi built Starbuck Island right off the Green Island Bridge and won all sorts of awards for this rejuvenation and restoration. How often do waterfront properties come up in the Capital Region? This was a brand-new building, so we could create from scratch. I love Boston seaside restaurants and Mediterranean food. That’s how Sea Smoke came about: New England meets Miami vibe with a Mediterranean twist. And beautiful views of Troy.
How has your staffing come through the pandemic?
Our staffing is solid now, across the board. I take pride in the package we offer: 401K, health benefits, vacation and sick days. Yes, it’s expensive, but I make sure we can afford it because a restaurant can have a great food program, but it’s nothing without the proper staffing to take care of the guests’ experience.
What keeps you fresh, rather than exhausted?
I like to grow; I like challenges. Adding a little more difficulty to every day keeps me motivated. I also love to create and to build. The passion is in the process. As a chef, you have to embrace hundreds of repetitive routines so you learn to find the Zen in the repetition. But what gets me up in the morning is the creative process, the building.
Describe your role as executive chef of your restaurant group.
I oversee all the chefs and do R&D with each one to come up with new dishes, give feedback, help them with systems. As much as I would love to design all the menus at my restaurants, in order for my vision to translate to the plate, the soul of the chef who is running the operation must be involved in the mix. So the menus are a hybrid of their passion and my vision.
Who are some of your mentors?
Dan Smith, the chef at Nicole’s Bistro when I was in culinary school. With only three people in a small kitchen, we all did everything. It was a great early education. In New York, I learned to cook French food at Daniel Boulud’s restaurants; he became my French restaurant role model. I have dreams to open a restaurant to pay homage to that part of my background. But above all, I’m so grateful for all the years I spent working with Angelo Mazzone. He’s my number-one mentor. I learned so much by watching him; I was always paying attention even when class wasn’t in session.
Describe your own culinary heritage and evolution.
I grew up with Puerto Rican and Colombian food. Chinese-Cuban fusion is popular in New York, and there were two Chino-Cubano restaurants right around the corner from our home, so I ate there all the time. That early exposure gave me license to do fusion with just about any foods.
Tell us your family.
My wife, Jen, and I met at Mazzone Hospitality. She oversaw front of house for Mazzone Catering, handled all the training and managed the books. Jen now runs our JO marketing team and sales, makes sure event orders are in line, and trains all the folks in our catering sector. She’s a powerhouse and makes my job look easy. We have two kids, 12 and 4.
How do you cook at home?
We’re both cooks so we can make anything out of anything. At home, I cook fast and can feed everyone in 20 minutes, and no one can understand how I pulled it off until they look in the kitchen and see the disaster. Jen would say I need two full-time utility guys to follow me around, especially with cleanup. Whereas when she cooks, the kitchen is pristine.
Any hobbies?
I love golf, and we enjoy camping with a lot of family. We take our trailers up through the Adirondacks, Maine and Pennsylvania. It’s good times around a bonfire.
What brings you joy?
Cooking still brings me joy; I’m still obsessed with learning new flavors and techniques. And I call myself a professional diner: I love to travel and try new dishes.
Challenges?
Every business is a house of cards, especially restaurants, which are very fickle with a lot of competition. You never take for granted your success or your accomplishments. I always ask myself: What’s next, how can I do something even better? There’s always so much to do.
Advice to aspiring chefs?
You have to have a passion for cooking, but you also need to understand that cooking and loving food is not the same thing as running a restaurant business. Cooking is a creative process, while running a business is about sensibility. The two skills don’t automatically mesh, so you need to develop fluency in both.
A lot of talented cooks come out of culinary school, but what often holds them back is fear. Will people like this dish I prepared? But if you’re fearless, nothing can hold you back. There’s Chef Gusteau’s line from the end of Ratatouille: “Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.” You put yourself out there to be judged dish after dish. Seeking critical feedback about a dish can only make you better at what you do. But you have to be fearless about welcoming that feedback. I try to instill that fearlessness in my chefs.
In a nutshell?
Be fearless, be passionate, be sensible, and give 110% no matter what, in whatever capacity you can, to build your brand.
Instagram: @chefjamieortiz
Breakfast today?
The basics: eggs with bacon and a croissant or a bagel. But my true favorite is Colombian-style huevos pericos (scrambled eggs with tomatoes and scallions) with an arepa.
Favorite childhood meal?
A Puerto Rican dish called pernil arroz con gandules. Slow-roasted pork shoulder with rice and pigeon peas. I still make that dish a few times a year for my family. And my mom’s sweet plantains and potato salad with apples.
Cake, pie or cookies?
Dominican birthday cake. A yellow cake with pineapple and guava filling and a Swiss meringue frosting.
Guilty pleasure in food or drink?
Fresh baked bread and butter. And good mezcal. But not together.
Late night or pre-bed snack?
Cheese and charcuterie.
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